Elder statesman and a former Minister of Finance and Agriculture, Mallam Adamu Ciroma, has stated that somebody from the northern part of the country should have succeeded the late Umaru Musa Ya’Adua as president and not Goodluck Jonathan.
Ciroma, who spoke on Liberty FM, Kaduna, on Saturday affirmed that he lost interest in Nigerian politics because of the insincerity of the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party on rotational Presidency.
According to him, rather than abiding by the agreement on rotational presidency, the party leadership scuttled it as soon as former President, Umaru Yar-Adua died in 2010.
Ciroma said, “I was there when the party was moving the Presidency between the North and the south. And this President was there when General (Olusegun) Obasanjo presided over the agreement in the PDP, which agreed that the movement of the Presidency from North to South should be based on two terms.
“President Obasanjo did his two terms on behalf of the South, and Yar’Adua was doing his first term on behalf of the North but unfortunately, he died. And the PDP leaders, instead of agreeing on somebody from the North to complete Yar’Adua’s term, they all went to ensure that the Vice President became the President; and since the leaders we made agreement with departed from this agreement, I lost interest in Nigerian political affairs.
“Because if you cannot trust people you form a party with, you win power with, you work hard with, whether it is Tony Annenih or any other of the party, I lost interest in the party itself.”
While taking assessment of the party since 2011 to date, the former Minister expressed concern over the current security challenge in the land.
He said, “The biggest of the worries facing the country is that of insecurity and the issue of Boko Haram, people who steal and the issue of bombing. These are problems and they become even bigger sources of worry as we look forward to 2015 general elections.